Now, the darkness seems unrelenting. As the forces of organized crime are insurmountable, the immigration dilemma is intractable, and U.S. government bureaucrats meddle, this may be one drama that is too despairing for its own good.

Lately, TV dramas have reveled in the depths, depicted the bloodiest criminal acts, exposed the underside of humanity and delivered some fine performances along the way. “Rectify,” “Top of the Lake,” “The Returned,” “Tyrant” — like “The Sopranos,” “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men” before them — have sometimes conflated darkness with profundity. Even on broadcast TV, what could be darker than “Hannibal”? Even “The Blacklist” dredges all manner of evil to spin a tale. Tragedy doesn’t always equal good drama.

With so much dark, darker, darkest “entertainment” out there, viewers must determine how much, in what doses, we can take.

Personally, the second season of “The Bridge” may be the cut-off point. The uncharacteristic act of Det. Sonya Cross (Diane Kruger), the cop with Asperger’s who is fascinated/obsessed by the murder of her sister, may be a bridge too far. This season, Sonya meets the brother of her sister’s killer. No spoilers, but what happens tests credulity.

Matthew Lillard, Emily Rios, Thomas M. Wright, Ted Levine and Annabeth Gish are well cast and their characters are fully sketched. Having seen two hours of season 2, I’m not ready to give up yet, but I’m starting to prioritize TV’s darkest hours and wonder if “The Bridge” will make the cut.

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.